After 25 Years, The Nintendo World Championships Return

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The 1990 Nintendo World Championships was a multi-city gaming bonanza loosely inspired by the Fred Savage/Jenny Lewis-starring film The Wizard. The 2015 Nintendo World Championships will be — well, something else.

Nintendo of America President and COO (and resident ham) Reggie “Reggie” Fils-Aimé lays it all out in a very Nintendo video, featuring a definitely real board room meeting and a totally relevant training montage. If you don’t care to witness Reggie free-lifting GameCubes and gorging on bananas, though, the actual details are on Nintendo’s E3 hub.

Apparently qualifying rounds for this “gaming showdown for the ages” begin May 30. It would be nice to know what games we’re supposed to be practicing, but that minor detail won’t be available until later.

If you’ve got your sights set on the crown for some reason, it probably can’t hurt to brush up on your Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. Wii U and Super Mario 3D World. Just don’t bother with the Virtual Boy refresher, because no, Reggie, those games were not “great.”

Nintendo will stream the 2015 Nintendo World Championships live from E3, the biggest gaming convention of the year, on June 14. The company’s E3 hijinks will also include a digital press conference and “Nintendo Treehouse Live” streaming from the convention floor.

Without a new Zelda game for Nintendo to lean on — they announced recently that it’s been delayed into 2016 — events could prove painful to watch. Either way, definitely worth tuning in.